Commands

1. pwd:
I. pwd: Displays current path
2. date:
I. date: Displays current date
II. date +%A: Displays current DAY
III. date +%B: Displays current MONTH
IV. date +%C: Displays short date {11/28/21}
3. cal:
I. cal: displays current month calendar
II. cal [year]: Displays calendar for a specified year
III. cal [month] [year]: Displays calendar for specified month
4. clear:
I. clear: Clears the terminal
5. cd:
I. cd [target path]: changes working directory to target path
II. cd ~ : changes working directory to home directory
III. cd .. : changes working directory to parent directory
IV. cd ../.. : changes working directory to grandparent directory
6. whoami:
I. Prints the name of the current working user
7. ls:
I. ls: lists all files and directories in current path
II. ls -l: lists all files and directories as a long list (giving info about
files/dirs.)
III. ls -r: list everything in reverse order
IV. ls -a: lists everything including hidden files
V. ls [path]: list everything inside a given path
VI. ls -lh: list everything as human readable long list
VII. ls -t: lists everything sorted by timestamp
VIII. ls -R: list everything in current directory and everything in its children
directories
 IX. ls ???: list files/directories that contains 3 characters, each {?}
represents a character
X. ls a*: list files/directories starting with {a}
XI. ls *a: list files/directories containing {a}
XII. ls -i: display “inode number” of files
XIII. ls [abc...]: list files/directories containing {a}, {b} or {c}
XIV. ls [!abc...]: list files/directories containing anything except {a}, {b} or
{c}
XV. ls [[:alpha:]]: list files/directories containing any alphabetic character
XVI. ls [[:lower:]]: list files/directories containing any lowercase character
XVII. ls [[:upper:]]: list files/directories containing any uppercase character
XVIII. ls [[:alnum:]]: list files/directories containing any alphabetic character
or a digit
XIX. ls [[:punct:]]: list files/directories containing any printable character
not a space or alphanumeric
XX. ls [[:digit:]]: list files/directories containing any alphabetic character
XXI. ls [[:space:]]: list files/directories containing any single white space
character. This may include tabs, newlines, carriage returns, form
feeds, or spaces
8. tty:
I. tty: stands for tele type which prints terminal file name
9. chvt:
I. chvt: stands for change virtual terminal, navigate to the target
terminal
10.exit:
I. exit: exits the current terminal

11. passwd:
I. passwd: changes the user password
12. file:
I. file [path]: prints the type of a specified file
13. which:
I. which[command]: prints th prints the path of user bash e location
where this command stores its files
 II. which bash: prints the path of user bash
14. cat:
I. cat [file path]: prints the text inside the specified file
II. cat /etc/passwd: prints all the users in the system – like:
username:password:userid:primarygroupid:alias:user directory: user
default shell directory
III. cat /etc/shadow: prints all the passwords of the users but encrypted
IV. cat /etc/group: prints all existing groups – like: groupname:user
password:group id:included users in the group
15. head:
I. head [file path]: prints the first 10 lines of the target file
II. head -n 5 [file path]: prints the first 5 lines of the target file
III. head -n [num] [file path]: prints the first [num] lines of the target file
16. tail:
I. tail [file path]: prints the last 10 lines of the target file
II. tail -n 5 [file path]: prints the last 5 lines of the target file
III. tail -n [num] [file path]: prints the last [num] lines of the target file
17. wc:
I. wc [file path]: prints the number of lines, words, characters inside the
target file
II. wc [file path] -w: prints the number of words inside the target file
III. wc [file path] -l: prints the number of lines inside the target file
IV. wc [file path] -r: prints the number of characters inside the target file
18. history:
I. history: prints all the previously typed commands on this shell, stores
all this commands in file called {.bash_history}
II. history -c: clears history
III. ! 5: executes command number 5 in history
IV. ! [num]: executes command number [num] in history
V. !!: executes the last command in history
19. touch:
I. touch [file]: creates new file called {file} in current directory
II. touch [file2] [file 3]: creates new files called {file2} and {file3} in
current directory
III. touch [fileName] [extension]: creates new file with specified
extension or modify timestamp of existing file
20. mv:
I. [filename] [filepath]: move the target file to the target path
II. [filepath] [.]: move the target file to current directory
III. [filename1] [filename2]: rename filename1 to be named as
filename2
IV. mv [file1.txt] [targetPath/file2.txt]: move file1 to the target path and
rename it to be file2
21. cp:
I. cp [filepath] [destinationpath]: copy the target file to the target path
II. cp -r [source directory path] [target directory path]: copy source
folder to destination path
22. mkdir:
I. mkdir [directoryName]: make new folder [directoryName] inside the
current directory
II. mkdir [targetPath/dir2]: makes new directory {dir2} inside tagetPath
directory
23. rmdir:
I. rmdir [directoryName]: deletes specified directory from current
directory BUT the specified directory must be empty first.
24.rm:
I. rm [filename]: deletes specified file from current directory
II. rm -R [directoryName]: deletes specified directory from current
directory – used when specified directory is not empty
25. dir:
I. dir: list all the content of current directory
II. dir –color: list all the content of current directory and coloring files
and directories with different colors
26. date
I. date: print the current date and time
27. echo:
I. echo [message]: prints the given message on screen
II. echo Day_{Sunday,Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday}.log: prints
Day_Sunday.log, Day_Monday.log, etc
III. echo StudentID_{1..200}.txt: prints StudentID_1.txt,
StudentID_2.txt,…,StudentID_200.txt
IV. echo file{a,b,c}{1,2,3}.txt: prints filea1.txt filea2.txt filea3.txt fileb1.txt
fileb2.txt fileb3.txt filec1.txt filec2.txt filec3.txt
V. file{a{1,2},b,c}.txt: print filea1.txt filea2.txt fileb.txt filec.txt

28. > :
I. [command] > [file]: prints the output to the specified file by
overwriting its content using the given command
II. example:
i. echo [message] > [file]: deletes content of file then writes the
given message in the file
29. >> :
I. [command] >> [file]: prints the output to the specified file by
appending to its content using the given command
II. Example:
i. echo [message] >> [file]: writes the given messages in the file
without deleting any of its content
30. find:
I. find [target path] -name [file name]: search for the specified file
name in the target path
31. less:
I. less [filename]: prints the content of file page by page -- navigate
through pages using space -- quit from command using 'q'
32. more:
I. More [filename]: prints the content of the file by a percentage
33.|:
I. cat file1.txt | less
 II. ls -lR | less
34. ln:
I. ln [pathOfExistingFile] [pathToNewHardlink]: create a hard link
between existing file and new file
II. ln -s [pathOfExistingFile] [pathToNewHardlink]: create a
soft/symbolic link between existing file and new file
35. Variable Expansion / Assigning and Using Variables:
I. Var = abcde:
II. Example:
i. Echo $Var: prints {abcde} – MUST put {$} before the variable
name
36. Command Substitution:
I. command is enclosed in parentheses, and preceded by a dollar sign
($)
II. Example:
i. echo Today is $(date +%A): prints Today is Sunday -- current
day ya3ne.
ii. echo Today is $(date): prints Today is Sun Jan 3 07:01:35 UTC
2021 – current date
37. Protecting Arguments from Expansion:
I. Use backslach “ \ ” to protect next character from expansion
II. Example:
i. echo The value of $HOME is your home directory.: prints The
value of /root is your home directory.
ii. echo The value of \$HOME is your home directory.: prints: The
value of $HOME is your home directory
38. ps aux:
I. ps aux: prints all the system processes
39. useradd :
I. useradd [username]: creates new user with the specified username
II. useradd [username] -c [alias] -s [default shell path]: creates new user
and set his alias & default user shell
III. useradd [username] -p [user password] -u [user id]: creates new user
and set his password and user id
 IV. useradd [username] -e [date]: creates new user and set its expiration
date
40. usermod:
I. usermod [username] -c [alias] -s [default shell path]: modifies the
alias and default shell of existing user
II. usermod [username] -s [shell path]: like -- usermod ahmed -s
/usr/sbin/nologin -- makes the user has no shell and also has no login
access
III. usermod [username] -G [group name]: add the specified user to the
specified group as a secondary group for this user by overriding
IV. usermod [username] -aG [group name]: add the specified user to the
specified group as a secondary group for this user by appending
V. usermod -L [username]: lock the specified user
VI. usermod -U [username]: unlock the specified user
41. userdel:
I. userdel [username]: delete the specified user without user default
directory
II. userdel -r [username]: delete the specified user and the user default
directory
42. id:
I. id: displays current user info
II. id [username]: displays the info of the specified username
III. id -u [username]: displays only the user id of the specified username
43. passwd:
I. passwd [username]: change password for a specified user
44. groupadd:
I. groupadd [group name]: creates new group
45. groupmod:
I. groupmod [group name] -g [group id]: modifies the group id
II. groupmod -n [new name] [old name]: modifies group name
46.groupdel:
I. groupdel [group name]: delete the specified group
47. su:
I. su [username]: switch to this username
 II. su - [username]: switch to this username and go to its default home
directory
48. sudo
I. FORCE ANY COMMAND AS IF YOU ARE ROOT
II. sudo passwd [username]: change password of another user
III. sudo apt update: update all the indices of apt repositories
49. vim:
I. vim /etc/sudoers: this file contains the privilages of the users
50. exit:
I. exit: logout and switch to the previous user